And you never know what might happen. Hubby took the kids off to the water park, and I stayed home. I’m joining them later for Go-Karts and all that. The idea was that I’d have some quiet time and maybe even take out the clay. BWAHAHAHA!

I swam for a bit. The water’s perfect after all these hot days. Then I got an idea. I had put potted tropical plants around the pool to make it a bit less glaringly obvious, but you can’t really see them if you’re IN the pool. So I went to the wood pile and got some nice chunky logs and put the plants on those. But then you could see more of the blue plastic from outside of the pool. So I took the blueberries that I hadn’t gotten around to planting, put them in pots, and put those pots in between the logs. There was a space I didn’t like, still, so I took some cuttings from the butterfly bush, dipped them in rooting hormone, and potted them. Now I didn’t like the other side, so I moved a couple of other pots from around the yard, added a little more log action. While I was at it, I had four cacti and a cactus dish that needed to be put together, so I did that. Note to self – just break the little cactus pots instead of trying to pry the cacti out. Ouch. So I start cleaning up a bit and see the tent I’d bought for the kids, still in its original packaging. Oh, heck. I got the heavy duty rake and a spade, dug and leveled in the back corner until I reached a balance of even ground and being sick of digging and raking, and assembled the tent. Then back in the pool for a bit. Then showered and dressed. I have somewhere around an hour before it’s time to go.

As I was doing all this, though, I started to think about something I’ve been meaning to blog about for a while, and I’m thirsty and hungry, and I can eat and drink and blog more easily than eat and drink and clay, dontchaknow.

So what is it with people trying to sell their houses around here? I know the market has gone soft everywhere, but there’s a strange reaction in these parts. Wherever I drive, I see more “For Sale By Owner” signs than realtor placards. Plus, the prices on the FSBOs is higher than the multiple listed properties. I really don’t understand this. If it’s a buyers’ market, and prices have gone down, why would you do something that would drive buyers away? If you don’t list your house, you have to market it and show it all by yourself, to a much more limited audience. Buyers will go to a realtor, who can drive them to multiple properties and tell them about the various neighborhoods, and take them through houses that meet their criteria or come close. If they are from out of state or out of town, they’re not going to want to do all the legwork themselves. Sure, they might look at the properties on a website, but they’re not going to go through multiple FSBO websites and try to schedule walkthroughs with all the different owners whose properties have nice pictures. Owners won’t be able to count on the help of realtors who might think half a commission is better than none, either. There are so many houses on the market, a realtor could show to a dozen buyers a day without needing to look outside of the MLS.

From a practical standpoint, unless you really like spending money on advertising and sitting around your house waiting for a potential buyer who might or might not show up to see the property, and having to keep everything spic and span all the time in case someone decides to pop in at a moment’s notice (and for a longer time, too, since your house will be on the market much longer than a listed house!), it makes no sense. Now, what often happens is that owners will get a market analysis to price out their homes, and use the number the realtor suggests – but list it themselves to save the commission. After all the expense they have to go to in order to sell it themselves, they might still end up with a little more than if they’d listed it. If it sells before they give up. But holeeee cow! People are listing down here for so much more than market value, it boggles the mind. A buyer gets absolutely no benefit from buying a FSBO unless it’s a bargain. Pricing a FSBO $50K above market value – heck, I’ve seen some at close to $100K above market (talk about delusional!) – is the most self-defeating thing I can imagine. Why bother trying to sell at all? Do you hate your neighbors so much that you want only someone really too stupid to be trusted with his own money to move in? Are you trying to wrangle your way out of a divorce settlement by showing the judge that you really did want to sell and split the proceeds but nobody wants to buy?

I dunno. I’ve done the house buying and selling thing a couple of times now. Making the process longer and more painful seems like a completely asinine thing to me, but maybe I’m the oddball. . .